Waiter, There’s Some Plastic In My Fish: How Much Plastic Is In Our Seafood?

For a while now, scientists have known that fish are ingesting small pieces of plastic. But it wasn’t clear how much of that was reaching our dinner plate. Ecologist Chelsea Rochman wanted to find out. Rochman, who’s speaking at the monterey bay aquarium Sustainable Foods Institute, sampled fish from markets in California and Indonesia. “We found plastic and fibers from textiles (e.g., clothing, carpet, fishing nets) in about 1 out of every 4 seafood items sampled,” The recent ban on microbeads was a major victory. But microbeads in products like toothpaste and face wash are just one part of the problem. Single-use plastic items — bottles, bags, plates, straws and utensils — are also big contributors to the microplastic problem. The less we use, the better.